In the past, there have been different inspection vehicle designs that are used to inspect various structures, such as factory equipment, ships, underwater platforms, pipelines and storage tanks. If a suitable inspection vehicle is not available to inspect the structure, an alternative is to build scaffolding that will allow people access to inspect these structures, but at great cost and danger to the physical safety of the inspectors. Past inspection vehicles have lacked the control necessary to inspect such surfaces effectively. There are different ways of controlling and providing translational forces to vehicles, however, many of these systems are designed for gravity-dependent transport, whether the goal is to overcome gravity or simply use it.
The present invention provides a solution for providing vehicular movement in non-gravity-dependent operations, where the impact of gravity on vehicle movement can be minimized while still enabling versatile control. As well, the present invention is capable of effectively navigating a variety of curved surfaces such as pipes and vessels, as this is one possible use of the invention.